Friday, August 7, 2015

Comic shop orders of comic books and graphic novels softened slightly in July, marking the first month since May 2014 in which year-over-year sales slipped. Diamond Comic Distributors' preliminary sales report for July 2015, released today, reported orders estimated by Comichron to be around $52 million, down a little less than 3%.

There are a couple of caveats, however. Last July was the second strongest sales month of last year, and while it had the same number of shipping weeks as last month (five), publishers released 34 more new comic books and 10 more new graphic novels then than they did this July. Graphic novel unit and dollar orders were up nonetheless this July.

With the full Marvel relaunch yet to come, it's clear we'll be looking more at the later months of the year as being pivotal to the year's overall outcome. Through July, orders stand at $334 million, still up double digits (if barely) at 10.25%.

The aggregate changes:

Dollars

Units

JULY 2015 vs.
JUNE 2015

Comics

8.35%

3.46%

Graphic Novels

3.88%

5.14%

Total
Comics/GN

6.91%

3.61%

JULY 2015 vs.
JULY 2014

Comics

-4.67%

-8.22%

Graphic Novels

1.29%

10.81%

Total
Comics/GN

-2.88%

-6.74%

YEAR-TO-DATE
2015 vs. 2014

Comics

12.64%

12.08%

Graphic Novels

5.08%

5.18%

Total
Comics/GN

10.25%

11.50%

Marvel led the market shares for the month:

Publisher

Dollar Share

Unit Share

Marvel

38.43%

41.59%

DC

23.94%

24.30%

Image

9.48%

10.72%

IDW

6.60%

5.28%

Dark Horse

3.77%

3.36%

Archie

2.28%

2.62%

Boom

1.85%

1.99%

Dynamite

1.83%

1.65%

Titan

1.26%

1.15%

Oni

1.24%

1.19%

Other

9.32%

6.13%

With Secret Wars #4 topping the market, Marvel took eight of the top ten comics slots in July.

The relaunched Archie placed in the Top 10, bumping the publisher up to sixth place in dollar and unit market shares. The renumbering means Walt Disney's Comics & Stories is
the highest sequentially numbered series in current release (though
that series' early issues were in volume-and-issue format). For a title with no significant interruptions in releases, we probably have to go all the way to Sonic the Hedgehog, another Archie title now numbered in the 270s -- depending on whether or not we count Mad, which began as a comic book. I haven't run the math, but I wouldn't be surprised to find we're at the lowest average issue number for all comics in the business since the 1930s.

The top selling comics and graphic novels:

Comic Book

Price

Publisher

1

Secret Wars #4

$3.99

Marvel

2

Star Wars Lando #1

$3.99

Marvel

3

Civil War #1

$4.99

Marvel

4

Star Wars #7

$3.99

Marvel

5

Batman #42

$3.99

DC

6

Darth Vader #7

$3.99

Marvel

7

Archie #1

$3.99

Archie

8

Amazing Spider-Man
Renew Your Vows #2

$3.99

Marvel

9

Age of Apocalypse #1

$4.99

Marvel

10

Guardians of Knowhere
#1

$3.99

Marvel

Trade paperback

Price

Publisher

1

Fables Vol. 22

$17.99

DC

2

Wicked & Divine
Vol. 2 Fandemonium

$14.99

Image

3

Hawkeye Vol. 4 Rio
Bravo

$17.99

Marvel

4

Red Sonja 1973

$7.99

Dynamite

5

Batman Harley Quinn

$19.99

DC

6

Autumnlands Vol. 1
Tooth & Claw

$9.99

Image

7

Divinity

$9.99

Valiant

8

New Suicide Squad
Vol. 1 Pure Insanity

$16.99

DC

9

Civil War

$24.99

Marvel

10

Batman Eternal Vol. 2

$39.99

DC

Again, the number of new releases was down, versus 496 new comics versus 530 last July and 302 graphic novels versus 312:

Publisher

Comics shipped

Graphic novels
shipped

Magazines shipped

Total shipped

Marvel

75

36

0

111

DC

75

34

0

109

Image

74

19

0

93

IDW

45

29

0

74

Dark Horse

34

16

0

50

Boom

32

3

0

35

Dynamite

21

4

0

25

Titan

14

6

4

24

Archie

15

2

0

17

Oni

8

3

0

11

Other

103

150

49

302

Total

496

302

53

851

I'm in Hunt Valley, Maryland where I'm appearing at Shore Leave Convention -- just a few minutes from Diamond's headquarters, in fact! -- so there may be some delay in posting the final estimates next week. But if you're also in the area, be sure to drop by the convention. We've got a panel on the comics industry set for noon Sunday in Salon B.

Comichron.com curator John Jackson Miller
has tracked the comics industry for more than 20 years, including a
decade editing the industry's retail trade magazine; he is the author of
several guides to comics, as well as more than a hundred comic books
for various franchises.

Comichron is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.